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A review by nose_in_a_book
Sinners Condemned by Somme Sketcher
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
5.0
🌶️🌶️🌶️
Let me preface this by saying I tend to start a romance by searching key words to find out how long I have to wait until the smut. The frustrating lack of clarity I had after doing my usual searches normally would have turned me away. I’m just not in it for fade to black. But I’d seen one tiny snippet for the second book in this duology that was so tantalizing I decided I can always DNF if I’m not into it. God, was I fucking into this book.
It has barely any smut. In another book, I wouldn’t even rate with any chili peppers. But my rating scale has always been based on how successful the smut was, not on how prolific, and the tension between these two that rolls off the page is staggering. It makes the small bites of smut taste like entire meals.
This isn’t a book that focuses on plot. It exists. It’s relatively interesting. Like most dark romance, there’s mysteries at play that are intriguing. But the real star is the character work and dialogue. The two main characters are vibrant with complexity. The majority of the book is spent just letting the two of them banter and I think the book excels because of it. Their hatred-laced attraction is intoxicating. Every time I thought they were finally going to give in, that they were going to fuck their way out of the cat and mouse game they’d created, the author seemed to expertly say not yet.
I cannot recommend this book highly enough and wonder if I’ll even sleep tonight trying to read the next one.
Let me preface this by saying I tend to start a romance by searching key words to find out how long I have to wait until the smut. The frustrating lack of clarity I had after doing my usual searches normally would have turned me away. I’m just not in it for fade to black. But I’d seen one tiny snippet for the second book in this duology that was so tantalizing I decided I can always DNF if I’m not into it. God, was I fucking into this book.
It has barely any smut. In another book, I wouldn’t even rate with any chili peppers. But my rating scale has always been based on how successful the smut was, not on how prolific, and the tension between these two that rolls off the page is staggering. It makes the small bites of smut taste like entire meals.
This isn’t a book that focuses on plot. It exists. It’s relatively interesting. Like most dark romance, there’s mysteries at play that are intriguing. But the real star is the character work and dialogue. The two main characters are vibrant with complexity. The majority of the book is spent just letting the two of them banter and I think the book excels because of it. Their hatred-laced attraction is intoxicating. Every time I thought they were finally going to give in, that they were going to fuck their way out of the cat and mouse game they’d created, the author seemed to expertly say not yet.
I cannot recommend this book highly enough and wonder if I’ll even sleep tonight trying to read the next one.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence and Violence
Moderate: Sexual violence, Death of parent, Murder, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Torture and Blood